Consumers Are Revolting (Little People No More)

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1. then 2 minutes after I wrote this piece, I get an email from an old friend I haven’t heard from in 2 years. There’s no personal note – just instructions he’s forwarded to battle the brands. Here’s the email:

   HOW GOOD IS THIS!!!!!!

   REVENGE ON THE TELEMARKETER
   Three Little Words That Work!!

   (1) The three little words: “Hold On, Please…”
   Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off
   instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing
   call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind
   to a halt.

   Then when you eventually hear BT’s “beep-beep-beep”
   tone, you know it’s time to go back and hang up your handset,
   which has efficiently completed its task. These three little
   words
   will help eliminate telephone soliciting.

   (2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the
   other end?
   This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone
   calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.
   this technique is used to determine the best time of day for a
   “real” salesperson to call back and get someone at home.

   What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one
   there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6
   or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that
   dialled the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh,
   what a
   shame
   not to have your name in their system any longer!!!

   3: When you get those “pre-approved” letters in the mail for everything
   from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw
   away the return envelope.
   Most of these come with postage-prepaid return envelopes, right?
   It costs them more than the regular postage “IF” and when they are
   returned. It costs them nothing if you throw them away! In that case,
   why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these
   cool little,postage-prepaid return envelopes. Send an ad for your
   local chimney cleaner to American Express.
   Send a pizza coupon to Westpac.
   If you didn’t get anything else that day, then just send them their
   blank application back!
   If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn’t on
   anything you return.
   You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep
   them guessing! It still costs them!!!!!

   The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their
   own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let’s
   let them know what it’s like to get lots of junk mail,and best of all
   they’re paying for it… Twice!
   Let’s help keep you local Mail services busy since they are saying
   that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that’s why they
   need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!
   If enough people follow these tips, it will work —- maybe
   you’ll get very little junk mail anymore.

   Piers Fawkes
   February 23rd, 2007 at 1:06 pm
   

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1. PSFK